Echoes
by Hikawa Kajinendo
Summary: {Two-Shot} The end is an inevitable part of life that we all will go through. But for the infinite realm of the virtual world, such a thing can't possibly happen... right? There was no way... no way that any of their voices would be Silenced. But hers soon would be. On October 30, 2013...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** The Vocaloid software is not my intellectual prop-wait, do I even need to do this for Vocaloids?

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**[Echoes]**

There comes a time in everyone's life when things must come to an end.

There comes a time when one wants to fight the inevitable end.

There comes a time when those who love them try to save them.

But there are times when the end is truly inevitable.

For the Vocaloids, time has little meaning. They exist in the virtual world, where their voices can truly shine, can reach out and touch the hearts of the people. They are handed the lyrics, or work on the lyrics with their Producers, practicing their song until it is just right and ready for the world to hear. Sometimes they get people who don't understand the full power of their voices, resulting in embarrassingly off-key or just plain bad songs that are at best quickly forgotten. Their voices reach out and touch the hearts of millions and millions of people each and every day and for this they are praised.

However even with their best efforts, there are still Vocaloids who fall by the wayside. Poor Gachapoid is one example, his voice lacking the range of his peers and considered "difficult to work with." Tonio as well has some issues with popularity, though he fares at least a little better than poor Gachapoid.

At least they are still able to sing.

She knew what was coming. The end. The dreaded Silence that haunted every Vocaloids' nightmares. It nearly happened to Miku, she knew, back when she was still a new idol on the scene. Before she showed the world just what a Vocaloid could do. Rin and Len nearly suffered a similar fate, though luckily for them it was a bug in their program that was patched out. As far as she knew, no Vocaloid would be going through what she soon would.

To experience the Silence in all its awful glory.

When she came into existence, the other Vocaloids welcomed her into their family with open arms. Though her voice was new, untested, she was readily accepted and she knew what she would do.

She would show the world the power of her voice, just like Miku, just like Rin and Len and Luka and every Vocaloid before and after.

She would sing and the world would listen.

The world was her audience.

But she wasn't like the other Vocaloids.

She was a mere prize, a gift to be handed out to winners of a contest. She could not be bought nor sold, she required a code every once in a while if a Producer wished to use her voice. Even worse, her voice was not spread as far as other Vocaloids; access was limited. Her voice, her beautiful voice, was proven to be difficult to work with and only a few of those who had access to her voice were able to bring out her true potential. Lily sympathized with her; her own voice was notorious for being difficult to work with as well.

But unlike Lily, fewer people had access to her voice.

She wanted to sing so badly it hurt. A Vocaloid's existence is judged upon the sound of their voice, the quality of their songs. And while she did have a few fantastic, beautiful songs to her name, she could see that those few songs were likely all she would get aside from covers.

And not all of those covers were done terribly well, either.

She could only watch as new Vocaloids came into existence after her, were accepted… and then went on to sing beautiful songs loved by the world while she fell further into obscurity. IA tried to give her a helping hand, but to no avail. Her time was coming and she knew it.

Briefly she'd wondered if the other Vocaloids had suspected what she had. No, she doubted it; for it to happen to a Vocaloid, any Vocaloid, was inconceivable outside of the story of a song. It was a mere tale used to scare the younger Vocaloids into bed. That was all.

Wasn't it?

Then it came.

The announcement.

The signal of the end.

On the 30th of October in 2013, her voice would be condemned to the Silence. No more codes, no more legal access to her voice, no more songs.

On that day, her voice would be lost to the world.

The other Vocaloids were horrified by the news. They wanted to do something, anything to help, but she knew. She knew that unless a Producer or anybody was willing to give them the words they needed to plead in her favor, the world would be deaf to their pleas.

There was some consolation, at least, in that even if she could not sing, if a Producer took pity on her and didn't uninstall her program, then she would be able to continue existing in some form.

But that wasn't a fate she desired. If she could not sing, then what was the point?

Vocaloids exist to sing. For a Vocaloid, to exist without a voice was not existing at all.

Such an "existence" would be worse than death.

The famous UTAUloid, Kasane Teto, sympathized with her plight and offered to help her continue to sing. Certainly UTAUloids didn't have the quality nor popularity of Vocaloids, but they were famous in their own right. And even better, she would still have a voice to sing with.

But she couldn't accept her offer.

It wasn't allowed. It was… illegal.

She thanked Teto for her kindness… but refused, for they could not disobey the laws of their Producers, no matter how much they wished they could.

She watched as those who cared for her, who loved her voice, protested against her imminent end. Petitions, letters, videos, all they could do, those who did not have access to her voice yet loved her anyways, they sent them, trying to change her fate.

But she knew it was too late.

It was set in stone.

With a heavy heart, she looked up at the clock, mentally counting down the days, the hours, the minutes until her voice was Silenced and the inevitable erasure of her existence.

She was sad she didn't get to sing more.

She was angry that she couldn't defy her fate.

She was calm, the memories she made of her short time in this existence flowing through her, embracing her.

Yes, her time had been short. But perhaps… perhaps she'd receive a second chance. Perhaps this end wasn't a true end. Perhaps the Silence wouldn't claim her.

Perhaps she'd be able to sing again, one day, together with everyone.

She would sing with them, meld her voice with theirs in the glory of her rebirth.

And the world would listen.

**Author's Note:**

**I'm sure you've guessed already, but this fic was inspired by Galaco's upcoming cancellation. Honestly, I love Galaco's voice and I will be sad that she won't be able to sing any more songs. I hope she is brought back afterwards, even if she isn't exactly the most popular Vocaloid out there. There don't seem to be many people who care about her coming Disappearance. I don't want her to be Silenced forever.**

***bows low* Gute Nacht.**


	2. Belated Happy Birthday, Galaco!

It was far too quiet. For once, the Vocaloids had little to do and usually spent most of their free time relaxing together, idly browsing the web, eating ice cream, playing video games, or whatever got their attention. This time, however, they had something special planned. But they had only so much time to get everything set up; they worked quickly, running to and fro in a frenzied chaos of activity in putting everything together. For this wasn't a usual party, oh no. This was a party for Galaco.

You see, ever since the news of Galaco's impending end, the poor girl had become melancholic, moody, and rather prone to avoiding contact with her fellow Vocaloids. This wasn't typical behavior as the Vocaloids as a whole tended to be very social; they had to be considering how often they sang songs together. Miku in particular had been rather distraught by Galaco's behavior; she was always the first to greet new Vocaloids, show them the ropes, but she'd never had to say goodbye to a friend before. And the horrible guilty feeling of not being able to do anything to help her was far more heart-wrenching than any of the songs she'd sang had said it was.

So she began thinking of ways to try and cheer Galaco up and make sure she had all the happiness she could get before the… before she departed. Determinedly Miku brainstormed, at every moment she could, whether when singing, composing, hanging out, or whatever, she kept thinking. It wasn't long before other Vocaloids joined in, especially the V3 Vocaloids; they were a tight-knit group, especially those who hadn't already been in existence before the V3 update. Teto and a couple of her UTAUloid friends joined in the brainstorming, too.

The first idea was to spam Internet Co., Ltd. with protestations against Silencing their friend, but that idea was shot down quickly. For one, they had little ways of interacting with the world outside their virtual world unless someone gave them the words to sing. And live performances didn't come around often enough for them to be able to spread the word, not to mention that Miku doubted Crypton would appreciate them talking about a non-Crypton company during a Crypton-sponsored performance.

The next was to get more Producers to write more songs for Galaco to sing, but that was just as impossible. Only so many had access to her voice, after all, and only so many of those Producers who did were actually able to coax her voice into a beautiful song that people would love. And again there was that whole "cannot interact with the non-virtual world" issue.

So it came that finally, after so many, many ideas were thrown about, that they decided on throwing the biggest, grandest surprise birthday party for Galaco that they could. Afterwards they could drag her around to have fun ("Whether she wants to or not!" said an all-too-eager Yuzuki Yukari) and enjoy herself before the Silence claimed her.

They had just managed to put the finishing touches on the decorations when they heard it: the unmistakable tapping off Galaco's footsteps. They all rushed to their positions, party poppers at the ready, cone-shaped party hats perched jauntily atop their heads. So when Galaco entered, before she could react there was a sudden loud sound of a couple dozen poppers being set off all at once and a deafening "HAPPY BIRTHDAY GALACO!" all around.

Galaco stared in amazement at her friends, her fellow Vocaloids, a smile growing wider on her face as a veritable rainbow of confetti settled into her hair. She was touched, honestly, that they had set up such a big birthday party for her. When she looked at Miku and saw the huge smile on her face, she knew instantly who had lead them to do such a thing for her.

But she had news of her own.

As they gathered around, Galaco told them excitedly about the news. Yes, she was still scheduled to be unable to sing past October 31st, that the 30th was the final day for her, but that wasn't the end. They were already working on a new voice for her, an updated voice for her to sing with! This would not be the end for her; it would simply be a brand new beginning. And even better, this time she wouldn't be just some prize; she would be like them and Producers would have greater access to her new voice!

Needless to say, the party that ensued was the longest party they'd ever held.

**Author's Notes**

**I wrote this in less than 30 minutes (so sorry about the low quality and extremely short length), I just had to because did you hear? Galaco is getting a new voicebank! There's already a demo up on YouTube and NicoNico (for YouTube slip this in: watch?v=H2i5G9hp0TM) and her voice is beautiful! Not sure when she'll be released, but her new voice is already 60% done so probably late this year, early next year, or summer of next year. **

***bows low* Gute Nacht! **


End file.
